i watched an interview last night with one of manhattan's premiere chocolatiers. he said that he and his crew ( on a good day ) could put out almost 30,000 truffles! 30,000 in one day! i had been excited because i made 19,000 truffles last year. of course, i'm one person in meeteetse, and he has a whole crew, and a warehouse of a kitchen filled with state of the art machines. i do see a big difference in quality vs. quantity. making truffles one at a time is a slow labor intensive production. but the end result is that each one is unique and very good. i have no desire to compare myself with, nor compete against, manhattan's finest. i will say that on a good day, i can put out several hundered truffles. and while his are very good, something is lost when a machine makes your dessert. not that i wouldnt eat one of his if given the chance. but you cant get dirty if the machines are doing the work. the store doesnt smell like fresh brownies, or tempered chocolate and the whole atmosphere changes. i like what i do, and i'm proud of the job i do. thats all i can ask for. now of course, if someone wants to create a machine that will muck a stall, or clean out a frozen feed bunk, i'll be more than interested.